· The easiest way of getting your car to the Baltic States is to take a DFDS ferry from Newcastle to Gothenburg and drive across Sweden - a very easy country to drive through, since there is so little traffic on the roads. Then you have a choice: Tallink will take you from Stockholm to Tallinn in Estonia, or Rigas Juras Lines will take you to Riga in Latvia. If you drive from Gothenburg to Karlshamn in south-eastern Sweden, you can also catch a Lisco ferry to Klaipeda in Lithuania. Terry Coles

· You may find it more convenient to take the DFDS ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg in Denmark. From Esbjerg there is a road route (via two toll bridges) to Sweden. Alternatively DFDS also sail from Harwich to Cuxhaven in Germany which is a short drive to the German Baltic ports. There is a large number of routes to Sweden, Finland and the Baltic States within the Baltic. The best compilation is probably the Ferry Center but this is mainly in Swedish. It does have a handy clickable map. It is worth visiting the websites of Silja, Viking, Finnlines, Seawind, Scandlines, TT line and Superfast. Note that not all these lines sail directly to the Baltic States but may involve a change of ferries in Helsinki.Brian Gay